Character name pronunciation in D.H. Lawrence

February 13, 2025 9:51 AM

Just started reading D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and wondered... how is the family’s last name pronounced?

Is it mor-ELL, or MOR-ell? At first glance I assume the former, like the name of the mushroom, but given the setting it occurred to me this might be like Forster’s
Maurice, where I thought it was maur-EECE until I saw the film and learned it’s MOR-iss.

I couldn’t find this question addressed online, so I’m probably completely overthinking it, but now that I’ve thought about it, it will bother me until I learn how people usually say it!

Thanks!

posted by dnash to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

ChatGPT points out that the name is of French origin, and so probably pronounced mor-ELL.

You could watch the movie and see what they did.
posted by Lemkin at 9:58 AM on February 13

Lady Ottoline Morrell was a very close friend of DH Lawrence, heres an english bookseller pronouncing her name.
posted by Lanark at 10:13 AM on February 13

Best answer: ChatGPT points out that the name is of French origin

So is Maurice...

(That said, it's pronounced mo-RELL in both of the video links above)
posted by trig at 10:19 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Sam West, a very good British actor, asked a similar question about Lady Ottoline (on X, I'm sorry), and had an answer from the BBC which I would trust, I think. In case you can't read the follow-up, he says "BBC says OTTOleen MURRell, so that’s what I’m going with."

I'm a Brit; a name's being of French origin isn't particularly a guide to pronunciation here. It can be sometimes, but other times generations of people in a family will make a great effort to make their name NOT sound French. It's been a while since I read Sons and Lovers so I can't remember if the Morrells move in similar circles to Lady Ottoline.
posted by altolinguistic at 10:27 AM on February 13 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: so I can't remember if the Morrells move in similar circles to Lady Ottoline.

Poor coal mining family near Nottingham, late 1800s I think, so not really. It mentions the father’s grandfather “was a French refugee who married an English barmaid, if it was a marriage.” So French origin, yes, but I didn’t know if Nottingham coal miners would still say it that way. Also my attempted phonetic spelling in the post may have misled - it’s spelled Morel in the book.

I think I’m also having a reaction to an experience a few years ago where I read the entirety of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell thinking the name in my head as NOR-rell, and then was shocked hearing the TV series announcement pronounce it nor-RELL.
posted by dnash at 10:49 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Reminder to try and keep away from submitting Chat GPT answers here.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 11:23 AM on February 13 [21 favorites]

I can't speak for DH Lawrence, but my entire family lineage hails from Southern Indiana, and the only morel I know is the sainted morel mushroom. Morel like the mushroom is pronounced mrEl, it's technically two syllables but you kinda cram it into one. You can find native morels growing in the UK, and as far as I know they say it about the same over there. I haven't read Sons and Lovers but I'm aware of the basic plot, and I think you can make the symbolism of a humble, working class fungus that has the capacity to be so much more if only it could escape the dirt it was grown in fit enough to claim the mrEl pronunciation as you're reading.

and then was shocked hearing the TV series announcement pronounce it

Here's a vaguely related thing I think you may enjoy. In Mildred Pierce the younger daughter is named Moire, who they call Ray for short. Ray dies tragically young, and only at the funeral when the priest says her name (MOY-ra) do they realize how the name was meant to be pronounced. They always thought it was fancy and French and pronounced muah-RAY, hence the nickname. It's a wonderful distillation of Mildred's motivation throughout the book, desperately grasping at the beau monde though she's distinctly middle class, always to end in tragedy. It's just a little, seemingly throwaway plot point that reveals so much. One of my faves.
posted by phunniemee at 7:38 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

According to Wiktionary, emphasis is on the second syllable. However, no citation given.
posted by dusty potato at 12:05 PM on February 14

Best answer: Forvo, a crowdsourced pronunciation reference site, has an anglophone speaker from Canada pronouncing it with emphasis on the second syllable as well, although again, no other context available on that person's bona fides regarding this particular word. But hey, it's something at least.

edit: oops, my bad, just realized I linked to a one-R Morell. However! here are two people pronouncing Morrell the same way on Forvo.
posted by dusty potato at 12:08 PM on February 14

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Looks like I'll stick with mor-REL, second syllable, in my head as I read.
posted by dnash at 12:52 PM on February 14

Poor coal mining family near Nottingham

Brit here. In common English culture, names change - pretty quickly - to conform to local pronunciation standards. French-style pronunciation would be lost, perhaps explicitly rejected given that the French were a hostile enemy in the late 19th century. If this were a real-life family, I'd lay money on the name rhyming with moral, maybe an each-way bet to include murrell (first-syllable emphasis in both cases).
posted by vincebowdren at 3:32 AM on February 15

It looks like you have your preferred answer, but for a specific source, the "BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names" 2e, G.E. Pointon, ed., 1990, Oxford University Press, specifically says "mɒ'rel [...] is appropriate for Lady Ottoline ~." The pronunciation key given in the book says the ɒ IPA character (an open back rounded vowel) is pronounced like the O in "not" as typical in Received Pronunciation. The stress mark precedes the stressed syllable, "rel."
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:29 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]